I wake up pretty early in the morning, Rina is firmly attached to my arm. She must have rolled around a lot in her bed to end up in mine… I push her off and go to the other corner of the gym, I still have to absorb my concentrated crystal and physical enhancer. Yuma already took his physical enhancer last night when Rina fainted. He now has a power level of E, same as Masaru... No, he’s a good friend, he wouldn’t abuse his powers to do bad things. Don’t let Masaru influence your decisions after death.

I first take the syringe containing the physical enhancer and stab it into one of my veins. Thanks to my blood talons constantly bursting holes in my forearm, I don’t seem to have any problems with harming myself anymore. Now that I think about it, those holes usually heal pretty fast…. Maybe blood dragons have a natural healing factor?

I feel something warm from within me, like I just swallowed some hot coco after a snowy day outside.

“Status.”

Hmm…. Seems like the enhancer doubled all my stats. Looks like I underestimated the usefulness of those stat capsules, the higher your initial stats, the higher your final stats will be. My stamina and strength still kind off suck tho…

Well, let’s just eat that concentrated crystal and be done with it. Since my status displays a mutation of zero, I’m guessing I can at least mutate my genes once before turning into a zombie... I hope...

I eat the pill and feel dizzy, suddenly a screen appears in front of me with 4 options to choose from:

-Dragon priest: Individuals from the blood dragon race that excel in holy and healing abilities, although they don’t possess magic themselves, they can use their own blood and life-force to perform miracles. These individuals are highly sought after and are usually treated as national treasures by the countries lucky enough to shelter them.

-Blood Sorcerer: Only high nobles of the blood dragon race that were selectively bred for thousands of generations with vast blood supplies and supreme control over their own blood have the honor to be called blood sorcerers. These chosen individuals are blessed with the genetic gifts of their forefathers and are not to be trifled with, blood sorcerers win wars and excel in combat situations where they are vastly outnumbered.

-Blood Borne: These are the outcasts of the blood dragon race that dared to long for magic akin to that of those races deemed inferior. By sacrificing their own blood, their life force, they can draw magic circles to summon, create and destroy. Many individuals walking this path get killed before reaching their full potential, it is, by all means, not an easy technique to master. But each member of the blood dragon race fear for the day they would one day anger a fully developed blood borne.

-The Thirsty Ones: We seek only fulness, whether it should be family, cattle or vermin. As long as their lifeforce can satisfy us for even 1 second, we will attack without mercy. Our fast and ruthless nature makes us difficult to doge and our stealth makes it almost impossible to see us coming. Many call us a plague, the diseased or even death itself. We call ourself the thirsty ones.

Hmmm… these all seem pretty powerful. Since I’m the leader of the group, I won’t become our healer, so dragon priest is out. Becoming a thirsty one just seems like a bad idea… I don't really want to get an insatiable lust for blood... I’ll definitely become more like a vampire if I choose this option.

That just leaves ‘blood sorcerer’ and ‘blood borne’. Hmm... it looks like I’ll become a powerhouse right from the start if I choose blood sorcerer…. But blood borne has more potential later on…. Yeah I’ll go for blood borne since I’m not in a hurry to become strong right away and being an outcast fits me perfectly.

“congratulations host for successfully mutating, your horns have grown and you learned some new abilities! You’re now officially a ‘blood borne’”

“Sweet let me check out my new status!”

“O-oi system…. Where did all my other blood abilities go?”

“Don’t worry host, they were simply replaced according to your chosen mutation”

God dammit! I finally got used to those blood talons…. Well no use crying over spilt milk, at least my stats were improved a bit.

“Could you give me some explanation about this sacrificial blood magic?”

“Of course host, using your blood manipulation, you can draw magic circles in the air with your own blood, these can manipulate reality much like regular magic circles. However you are limited to certain patterns and not every magic can be activated with blood, like holy or water magic for example. The magic that you are able to activate is… well… you are using blood, so… your powers are a bit demonic… or should I say non-conventional?”

“Okay… I’m just going to ignore your hesitation and all that talk about demonic magic for now... But these magic circles do sound a bit more complicated than just shooting flames out of my hands with the power of my mind… Besides, I don’t even know any magic circle-patterns, how do you expect me to conjure one?”

“Well luckily the creators have alrea-“

“Wowowow… Who are these creators your talk off?”

“The beings that created me are my creators, I don’t have any further information about them.”

Damn, I guess I can’t get any useful information about those aliens from the system…

“I’m afraid not host.” – “Stop reading my mind! Eughm… can you explain to me how I’m supposed to draw magic circles now?”

“But of course, my creators anticipated that some alien-powers need a lot of practice or trial and error. Luckily the human race is quite good at studying, I even heard they study subjects they don’t really care about in a place called ‘school’. Thus my creators decided to also sell books with tips and tricks on how to use your new found powers! A newly awakened person can simply walk up to the altar holding some crystals, there should now be a new tab with useful books and accessories based on your awakened genes.”

 “Oooh... Awsome, the only benefit of the apocalypse just got taken away. To think that I still have to study when I’m being chased by zombies… I really miss my blood talons.”

I walk up to the altar holding my 7 remaining crystals.

There does indeed seem to be a tab labeled: Blood Borne. I look inside the new tab.

The altar only displays 3 items: 'Blood-Magic circles for dummies' [5 CRY], 'Beginner spells that will drain your blood' [100 CRY] and a 'One-use Blood Parasite' [50 CRY]

I obviously buy the ‘Blood-Magic circles for dummies’ book, which is surprisingly cheap. Looks like I have to start saving my crystals if I ever want to buy the beginner spells book.

I exit the Altar with only 2 crystals on me… Damn, now I’m truly broke.

I flip through the pages of the book and discover the book also has pictures! Thank god, that makes it a lot easier. I try recreating the magic circle I saw under the title: Crimson Blade.

I bite a small hole in my forearm (which is actually pretty easy to do with my longer canine teeth) and draw blood from it, once I drew about a liter of blood I start my painting. The blood is pretty easy to control, I shape it in a circle in the air in front of me and start drawing the more intricate patterns.

After a minute I finished my magic circle, for a brief second a bright light appeared where my drawing was. A long katana-like sword falls to the ground. I try swinging it:

“Hmm surprisingly light.”

I never handled or even touched a sword before, but I could handle the blade perfectly, almost as if it was made specifically for me.

I drop the sword and it simply disappears into thin air. I flip through the other pages of the book: it mainly explains how magic circles work and even gives some theories on how you can combine them. There seems to be 4 other magic circles drawn in the book: Summon low devil, Blood Berserk, Life Steal and blood clone.

The specific patterns all seem to vary in size, I can’t wait to try them out so I quickly wake up Rina for a little ‘quality time’.